Bumper pay rises were being lined up today for four of Middlesbrough Council's top officers.

New scales will give almost 15pc extra and six-figure salaries to executive directors who run the key departments of environment, social services, regeneration, and children, families & learning.

The increases were expected to be approved today and coincide with an announcement by Government watchdogs, the Audit Commission, that Middlesbrough - along with the four other Tees Valley unitary councils - had been awarded excellent ratings local authority performance assessments across the country.

The proposed rises in Middlesbrough - six times the rate of inflation - would take top officers' pay from just over #87,000 to about #100,000.

Details of their #250-a-week increases come as hundreds of Middlesbrough Council workers are facing pay cuts from April as a result of a job evaluation process undertaken in the authority.

The pay of 4,000 council workers was re-assessed with about 55pc of staff getting a pay increase, 24pc staying the same and 21pc facing cuts to be phased in over the next three years.

The proposed pay rates for the top officers are being introduced to bring their salaries more in line with those offered to similar posts in other councils in the region.

Middlesbrough Mayor Ray Mallon says the increases will help retain and recruit top staff. He was expected today to approve the new rates.

Currently executive directors in Middlesbrough receive #87,267. They are: Tim White (regeneration), Jan Douglas (social services), Terry Redmayne (children, families and learning) and John Richardson (environment), who is due to leave the authority for a new job in the new year.

The council's chief executive, Jan Richmond, was appointed a year ago on #115,000 a year and it is believed that figure is now #125,000.